X Factor supremo Simon Cowell has let slip a heartbreaking secret about how being orphaned as an adult has affected his life.

Simon was left devastated by mum Julie Brett's death in 2015 when she passed away aged 89.

The two were very close and he described her as the "most beloved person" in his life.

He was forced to cancel X Factor auditions the day after she died and was visibly upset when he returned to the show.

Simon with his mother, Julie (Image: PA)

He was visibly upset when he returned to The X Factor after her death (Image: PA)

And he'd previously spoken about how the death of his dad Eric Cowell in 1999 was "the worst day of my life", adding how his father's shock heart attack at the age of 81 was a "horrible time".

Now, Simon has revealed how he still has long conversations with his late parents, even though they're not physically with him.

"I still talk to my mum and my dad in my mind now if I am having a difficult decision or I am struggling with something," he said.

Simon and Julie were very close (Image: Rex)

He was heartbroken when she died after a period of ill health (Image: Splash)

"I have a mental conversation with the both of them and I absolutely know what the answer is - it is the weirdest thing."

Their advice usually steers him in the right direction, the Daily Star reports.

Simon has always been open about the close relationship he had with his mum, who he adored.

"I drove down there recently because I really wanted my mum to cook me lunch,' he previously said in an interview.

Simon and his partner with Lauren Silverman named their son Eric after Simon's dad (Image: PA)

'I said, 'I'm going to come down tomorrow for lunch. She said, 'great, we'll book a hotel'. But I said, 'no I want your lunch'.'

"So eventually she did cook for me. But I like those days."

Simon, who named his son after his dad, also revealed how Eric Senior gave him the advice he needed to launch The X Factor, and how he tries to remember it every day.

"He said to me - because he was successful, my dad, when he ran his company - he said, 'everybody around you has an invisible sign on their head which says 'make me important'," he told Piers Morgan in 2015.

"What I understood from that is that you've got to recognise that everyone around you wants to be recognised, wants to be appreciated."